Holiday art | Outside The Lines

Can you imagine celebrating the holiday season without Christmas lights? In North America, it is expected that festive strings will illuminate trees, homes, and city centers throughout the month of December. But the Christmas lights we have today have been a long time coming. Its evolution began in 18^th century Germany and continues to progress each year.

Candles in Germany

It is said that Christmas trees were reserved for wealthy citizens of Germany in the 1700s. Those with exorbitant amounts of money would lavish their trees with candles – an expensive and hazardous decoration.

Thomas Edison and his String of Lights

Some time after Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he strung together a series of electric lights. In 1880, during the holiday season, he hung the strand outside his laboratory near a railroad line. Those traveling by train could see the first illuminated Christmas display.

Edward Johnson Introduces Colored Lights

Shortly after Edison began stringing lights together, a partner of his, Edward H. Johnson, wound a strand around his Christmas tree. He also colored the electric bulbs red, white, and blue.

General Electric Brings Lights to the People

Still, Christmas lights were reserved for wealthy families. It is estimated that lighting a Christmas tree in 1903 would have “cost $2000 in today’s dollars”. This prompted General Electric to offer Christmas light kits that contained strings of colorful lights.

Christmas Aglow for Everyone

In 1917, making Christmas lights common and accessible was a priority for the Sadacca family. They owned a novelty lighting company and began offering colorful stands of Christmas lights at their store. They became known as NOMA Electric Co., a popular name in Christmas lights that dominated the market for over four decades.

Today’s Christmas Lights

Today, Christmas Lights come in all shapes and sizes. People in North America, and throughout the world, choose to don their homes with festive lights. Now a days, it seems the holiday season officially begins when houses are aglow. Millions of Americans celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and other holidays with creative lighting. They take holiday decorations to a new level, becoming inventive with one of the world’s greatest inventions.

Read more Segmation blog posts about Art and Atmosphere:

Norman Rockwell’s Artwork Inspired by the Christmas Holiday

The Stories Behind Holiday Colors

Christmas Time

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Each year on the fourth Thursday of November, a very special North American holiday takes place, and that holiday is Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving season is known throughout the country as a time to delight in the presence of loved ones and enjoy a plethora of delicious food. A favorite holiday of many Americans, Thanksgiving inspires décor, recipes, movies, and even art.

Thanksgiving dates back to 1621, when it is assumed the first Thanksgiving took place at Plymouth. This early event was a celebration of an abundant harvest. Numerous artists throughout history have attempted to capture the imagined scenes from the first Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving has been the subject of many pieces of fine art for centuries. Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, “American painter and illustrator of Americana,” painted several Thanksgiving-themed scenes, including The First Thanksgiving (1915), The Mayflower Compact (1925), The Return of Miles Standish (1920), The Return of the Mayflower (1907), and The First Sermon Ashore (1921). Although The First Thanksgiving is said to be inaccurate in some of its representations, it gives us an idea of what the actual scene might have looked like so long ago.

Ferris was not the only individual whose art was influenced by Thanksgiving – Charles Lucy, George Henry Boughton, Henry A. Bacon, Henry Sargent, and Edward Percy Moran also found inspiration in this holiday. Jennie Augusta Brownscombe painted a particularly iconic work titled The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth (1914). This painting has “become a symbol of the holiday for many Americans.”

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth was executed by Brownscombe during the Colonial Revival Period. It is a tranquil, believable depiction of that first holiday that would come to mean so much to so many. This is an example of how art can help us imagine a significant historical event, deepening the overall meaning of it.

Make this Thanksgiving more memorable by creating your own seasonally-themed works of art. Segmation offers a SegPlayPC Thanksgiving pattern “paint-by-numbers” collection that makes it easy and fast to uniquely celebrate the holiday. The collection includes patterns of pumpkins, turkeys, cornucopias, pilgrims, etc., providing you a foolproof way to create scenes of your favorite aspects of Thanksgiving. Learn more about Segmation’s Thanksgiving pattern collection by visiting http://www.segmation.com/products_pc_patternset_contents.asp?set=THG.

http://www.joyfulheart.com/thanksgiving/pilgrim_artwork.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Leon_Gerome_Ferris

http://www.pilgrimhall.org/hpbrowns.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

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